A huge turnout can be expected at the Jackson Planning Board meeting tonight for a hearing on a massive 200-acre sports complex proposed for a site just south of Six Flags Great Adventure on Route 537 . Many residents will be there to try to stop it in its tracks.

For good reason.

Actually, for at least five good reasons: The need to clear-cut the heavily forested site to accommodate the complex. The traffic nightmare it would be sure to exacerbate on Route 537 near the I-195 interchange. The water quality damage it would inflict on streams and nearby Prospertown Lake, which sits on the site's shores. The adverse impact it would have on the area's natural habitat. And the proposed dormitory to house teams requiring lodging for events at a proposed 6,000-seat soccer stadium and the complex's other facilities. In March 2017, the Township Committee passed an ordinance banning dormitories, a response seen by the Orthodox community as an effort to prevent the construction of resident yeshivas in Jackson.

You could also add a sixth reason: The negative impact it would have on a similar project now under construction on the other side of Six Flags, north on Route 537. The $21 million sports and entertainment complex will cover 150 acres and include a five-story, 134-room, Hilton Garden hotel. The project's centerpiece will be a 117,000-square-foot sports bubble.

Developer Alan Nau, whose proposal is called Trophy Park, will be seeking approval Monday night for a commercial recreation park that would include two 98-room hotels, three restaurants, a 16,000-square-foot retail building, a two-deck, 18-court multi-sport arena, a team dining hall and restaurant, seven multi-sport athletic fields, 16 baseball/softball fields, 15 batting cages and the soccer stadium "with associated parking."

Jackson has long been trying to attract commercial ratables to offset the burden on residential property taxes — as it should be doing. But this isn't the place to do it, even though what is being proposed is a permitted use. No variances would be needed. The problem is the township's general master plan doesn't coincide with its environmental master plan. The allowable uses on that site don't comport with the environmental impacts the proposed complex would have.

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Developer Alan Nau wants to build a $120 million sports complex on 194 acres of land in Jackson Township. He is waiting on approval from the township.
Jackson, NJ
Friday, November, 30, 2018(Photo: Doug Hood )

Much of the site, which is owned by Six Flags, and is adjacent to the protected Pinelands Reserve, is heavily forested and would require clear cutting of trees on a scale far larger than that required under a plan that was eventually abandoned by Six Flags, under public pressure, to expand its parking and create a solar farm. The need for Trophy Park to clear-cut was the reason cited by Sky Blue FC, the professional women's soccer team in which Gov. Murphy is a majority owner, to bail on the project.

Perhaps as importantly, the optics of Murphy being involved in a project with the environmental problems posed by Trophy Park would not serve him well. Nor would concerns about one of his state agencies, the state Department of Environmental Protection, having to sign off a project in which he had a personal istake.

Bottom line: This project should be a nonstarter. The need to clear-cut trees on the site alone should kill it. If that isn't reason enough, there are plenty of others that should convince planning board members that the site isn't an appropriate place for the project.

The Planning Board meeting will be held Monday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at the Jackson Municipal Building.